Dear Chairs, Department Heads, and Department Administrators,
Due to the ongoing news of the coronavirus, we are encouraging departments to begin to think about critical work and telecommuting options for employees and staff, in the event these options become necessary. Please note, at this time in New York the risk to the general public remains low. That being said, the University continues to monitor the situation and is performing risk assessments to ensure the continuation of work.
At Steinhardt, we’ve put together a task force that is meeting several times a week to assist with contingency planning.
Please continue to use Steinhardt.Academic-Continuity@nyu.edu for all communications with the task force.
We are writing to request that departments begin to analyze and develop a list of essential (see below examples) staff and work processes, with the goal of ensuring academic continuity for any emergency circumstances. NYU has not implemented a Telework mandate, however, we recognize that some additional flexibility may be needed at this time. Any remote work agreements between supervisors and employees should be documented. The documentation should include the length of agreement (number of days, expiration date) and how managers are overseeing the employee’s portfolio of work. Departments should ensure that employees listed as essential staff have the necessary resources to perform their work functions remotely (e.g. - laptop, VPN, call forwarding, etc.) Here is an NYU IT guide for remote work.
What do we need your help with?
By Friday, March 6, 2020, complete this spreadsheet as best you can so that we can begin to analyze the essential functions across the School. Each department has a separate tab.
For each full-time employees:
- Indicate if they have a University Laptop. We have already checked off people we are aware of.
- Indicate if they have a Personal Laptop or desktop they are able to use at home.
- Indicate if that person is an Essential Employee.
- If Essential, list associated processes that justify this. Examples: payroll and finance operations; critical student support functions; large-scale communications
If any of your full-time employees are missing from the spreadsheet, please add them.
Additionally, if your office has a phone line that community members use as a general support line, indicate the telephone number and the person who is responsible for managing that line. We will follow up to discuss mobility settings and protocols.
At tomorrow’s Department Chairs meeting we will discuss academic continuity. More information will follow after we meet.
We will be sending all full-time faculty links to existing guides and best practices for using University Technology for instruction, in addition to information on Zoom, VPN, and other instructions.
If you receive any questions from faculty, staff, or students on this circumstance, please refer them to the related University updates and resources. You can also advise them to download the Safe NYU app, follow NYU Alerts and register their mobile devices for SMS alerts.
Once again, this is a proactive measure to ensure business continuity in any unforeseen circumstances. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Steinhardt.Academic-Continuity@nyu.edu.